Forepaugh
are dying for my society. Move along now! Don't block the sidewalk!
Can't you see the ladies want to pass?"
Two maudlin women of the underworld lurched by, with coarse, ribald
comments on the "swells." David felt himself grow hot with shame and
disgust. After their laughter had died away he turned to the grinning
Dick.
"But we must do something to-night--" he began imploringly.
Dick lifted his hand. "Correct," he said. "We must do some sleeping."
He strode to the mouth of the forbidding passage. A light from a
saloon window shone out upon a long flight of rickety steps at the
farther end, leading up to the darkness above. "See that stairway?
Well, I wouldn't advise you to follow me up there. It ain't a Romeo
and Juliet balcony, gents. Good night!"
He turned into the passage with a wave of the hand. They saw him pass
up through the shaft of light from the window and disappear in the
shadows. Then they hurried away from the foul place, almost running to
the cab at the corner.
David did not sleep that night. He tossed on his bed, beset by the
direst anxiety and dread, his eyes wide open and staring.
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